Steve Lemme on The Jimmy Star Show

Steve Lemme

Steve Lemme is an American actor and comedian known as a founding member of the cult favorite comedy group Broken Lizard which has gone on to make several popular films. Steve Lemme is currently the star of the new family film entitled I Heart Shakey.

Broken Lizard got its start when Steve Lemme attended Colgate University and became a member of the Beta Theta Phi fraternity, where he met Kevin Heffernan, Erik Stolhanske, Jay Chandrasekhar and Paul Soter. The five formed a sketch comedy troupe called Charred Goosebeak at Colgate and afterwards moved to NYC to commence their careers as sketch comedians. The group changed its name to Broken Lizard and performed weekly Off-Off Broadway shows.

Steve and Kevin Cooper (the director of I Heart Shakey) met back in NYC as they collaborated on a series of video sketches that played during Broken Lizard’s live show. Cooper’s NYU thesis The Tinfoil Monkey Agenda was the troupe’s first foray into filmmaking, and it was that short that helped raise funding for Broken Lizard’s first feature Puddle Cruiser. After Puddle Cruiser, the group’s popularity continued to grow and Broken Lizard made one of its most popular films, Super Troopers. Super Troopers was purchased at Sundance by Fox Searchlight and became a cult favorite grossing more than $100 million worldwide. Off the massive success of this title, Fox Searchlight financed Broken Lizard’s next film Club Dread, and afterwards was signed to a studio deal at Warner Bros. While on the Warner Bros. lot, the group developed the screenplay for (and played minor roles in) The Dukes of Hazzard. The success of The Dukes of Hazzard also resulted in the studio’s greenlight of their next film Beerfest, in which Steve Lemme plays the memorable role of Steve ‘Fink’ Finkelstein. Most recently, Broken Lizard produced the indie film Slammin’ Salmon and next up for Steve is his directorial debut on a film entitled Run for the Border.